Ground to Ground (GTG) missiles have become an efficient weapon which can cause significant damage to military and civilian infra-structures, and thereby they serve as a strategic tool in favor of states which attack their enemies (either offensively or defensively as a result of an attack originated by the enemy). In light of this ever increasing threat, an anti missile technology has been developed, such as the plan designated “star war”, the “Arrow” anti-missile technology (deployed and used by the Israel Defense Forces) and others. The and missile technology, such as the Arrow system is capable of tracking the oncoming ground to ground missiles and launch e.g. from a protected territory an anti-missile missile (AMM) (referred to also as kill vehicle—KV) which flies along a flight trajectory which substantially collides with that of the oncoming threat. The anti-missile missile approaches the oncoming threat (at a safe distance from the protected territory) and destroys it by using the hit to kill method or by activating an appropriate kill warhead which destroys at least the active warhead of the threat and thereby prevents the arrival of the threat (or damaging debris) to the protected territory.
In the last few years a wide range of new threats have been introduced such as the Shihab 3, Sihab 2000, Zelzal, Scud D and others, each of which having its unique flight characteristics, such as missile geometry, flight dynamics, IR and or RF signature, etc. The different flight characteristics of each threat impose a new challenge for kill vehicles, which should be upgraded to handle also new threats.
In order to assure proper operation in real life scenarios, the upgraded kill vehicle should be tested against a simulated threat having flight characteristics that resemble that of the real threat. Thus, for example, with the introduction of the Shihab 3 and after obtaining sufficient intelligent information as to the missile's flight characteristics, the kill vehicle should be retrofitted in order to duly handle also this newly introduced threat. In order to validate the efficiency of the kill vehicle against the threat in a real-life scenario, it must undergo field experiments in which it is launched and attempts to intercept the threat. However, typically a country which develops an arsenal of KVs such as Israel, does not have access to a real GTG missile (in the latter example, Israel is not likely to have at its disposal a sample Iranian Shihab 3,) and accordingly the technological challenge is not only to duly retrofit the KV, but also to develop a dummy threat which simulates the flight characteristics of the GTG missile. The latter is normally a costly and long procedure which not only poses financial constraint on the defense project, but also extends the turnkey date, since it normally takes a few years to develop a dummy missile that has exactly the same flight characteristics as that of the GTG missile. By the time that the KV has been successfully retrofitted and tested against the newly introduced threats, new threats may emerge that have not, as yet, been adequately addressed. The defending state is thus exposed to absorb significant damages due to the fact that the KV is not adapted (and duly tested) to destroy newly introduced threats.
It is also known that the destruction of a GTG missile before it hits friendly territory is a difficult task, considering the very high relative velocities between the KV and the GTG missile. The kill duration is thus very short and should be viewed accurately in order to determine whether the warhead portion of the GTG missile has been destroyed. The very short duration during which the hit occurs, as well as the far distance from a ground station (considering that the interception is performed Exo-Atmospheric), poses a significant challenge on tracking means for providing high quality kill assessment.
There is thus a need in the art to provide for a technique for performing Exo-Atmospheric missile's interception trials which can be applicable shortly after introducing of new threats and which significantly simplify (in terms of cost and lime) the procedure of developing a dummy threat that emulates the flight characteristics of the GTG missile.
There is a further need in the art to provide for a method which will facilitate a high quality kill assessment of the interception.